The Strain
by AllisonHeartsEverything
Summary: In the immediate danger of a new, insidious virus; the fate of Equestria rests in the frightend hooves of six specail ponies. This time, its going to take more than friendship to save them... The Tale Ensures Blood. OC's requested! Only accepting 4-6 of them.


**Rated T For:**

**-Zombies**

**So, I just got a really bad case of Writer's Block for my other fanfic, so I decided to start another story. Mabye it'll give me ideas? Anyways, out of all the things I could have wrote about, I decided to share my obvious love for ponies and zombies! :D**

**One more thing, OC request related. If you wanna submit your OC's, fill out the form and pm or review it back to me.**

**Name: **

**Gender: (Male or Female)**

**Type: (Unicorn, Pegausis, Earth Pony)**

**Personality: (Agressive, Sorrowful, Joyful, etc.)**

**Colors: (Blue Coat, Purple Tail, etc.)**

**Backround: (Keep it sweet and short please.)**

**Zombie-Survivor Story Role: (Pony that crys a bunch, Pony that supports other ponies, etc.)**

**Thanks again!**

**Hope you like the story.**

* * *

Chapter 1: The Situation

Apple Jack embraced her little sister for possibly the last time; all the while holding her double-barrel in between a single hoof.

Tears had littered both the earth ponies faces, Apple Bloom especially. It was both a miracle and a curse that such a young filly could even comprehend what was happening on the other side of their pathetic wooden walls. It was just the two orange ponies in the shed; all alone with nothing to accompany them but fear. The weak walls of the shed had barely enough strength to support themselves as _they _pounded on it. Each time one of the monsters had banged against the wooden barrier, the entire shed would shutter. Applejack knew that their measly little bunker wouldn't protect them for much longer. Things would've been much easier if Big Macintosh was here protecting them. Heck, they would've even settled for Granny Smith's weird sense of wisdom from her life experiences.

They were both dead; the monsters outside had consumed them. It was not as dramatic as it sounded, though. Apple Bloom was already in the shed, awaiting her family to retrieve her when it was safe outside. There were only about four of the rotting ponies assaulting the barn at first; their attacks were weak. But as one monster went down, two more had taken its place. Armed with a hammer and a shotgun; Big Macintosh did his best to defend his family. Sadly; it didn't take long for him to get overwhelmed by the ghoulish ponies. Before the red stallion disappeared into the mob; he threw his weapon across the field. Apple Jack retrieved it, but didn't bother to make a rescue attempt; for they had already begun to rip apart on her big brother's throat. The blood. So much blood. It would most likely haunt the orange cow-pony for the rest of her life.

And as for Granny Smith, well, she was just too… _kind…_ When the first of the walking corpses had burst through the barn door and into the living room, Granny Smith made a fatal attempt to treat him. Her last words were _let me help you _before the ghoulish pony had clamped his rotten teeth upon the old mare's soft neck. The life had been instantly drained out of Apple Jack's grandmother; and thus slumped on the floor, dead. It was at that moment when Big Macintosh took hold of the family shotgun and ordered her sisters into the barn. Poor Macintosh. Poor Granny Smith.

There were only two shells in the firearm Apple Jack held onto. All the ammo was on the deceased Macintosh, who was most likely a bloody mess of flesh and bone by now. Apple Jack raised a hoof to wipe her tears. She knew crying wouldn't get them out of this, though it seemed like the best thing to do at the moment. Apple Bloom was weeping heavily now. It must've been hard to realize that you could die in the blink of an eye…

Or however long these wooden walls decided to hold up…

They creaked dangerously; some splinters had begun to form as the wood began to bend and shift out of place. Apple Jack could sense her little sister's fear. She knew what it felt like all too well. This was more than another one of Apple Bloom's ghost stories. Much more.

It was then that Apple Jack was brought back to her filly-hood. In her memories, she was inside the family barn-house, sitting intently in front of Granny Smith. She was telling Apple Jack a story of when the older mare had accidently stumbled into the Everfree Forest. It was an interesting story, actually; and thus it had stuck to Apple Jack's long term memory-

"_Did I ever tell you about when I got lost in the Everfree Forest, Jackie?" Granny Smith asked, a warm smile painted on her face. The young filly shook her head._

"_You wanna hear it?" Granny Smith asked. Despite Apple Jack not being interested in the slightest of what her grandmother had to say, she nodded her head; giving a small Mmmhmm._

"_Well, it all started when I ran away from home," Granny Smith began, "I was very young at the time, and didn't know any better. I ran for the forest, which I didn't know was possessed by a strange presence. When I got lost, I got very scared. Fear had practically swallowed me up! I had to stay the night in the forest, cowering under a strange bark tree. It was morning when I had been rescued by my parents. They were angry, but later on forgave me and told me that I was the most important thing in their lives."_

_Apple Jack looked at Granny Smith in a confused way. Surely that wasn't the end of the story-_

"_Oh, but it was, my child!" Granny Smith exclaimed, "And what to be learned from this, is to learn from your fears."_

_Learn from your fears…_

And that's when the memory ended. Apple Jack was still in the same shed, with the same sister, and the same problem. The orange cow-pony didn't really know what to make of the memory, other than that fear was one of the main things people could learn from.

Apple Jack looked over to Apple Bloom, who was still hiding behind her straw-colored mane.

"Don't worry…" The bigger orange pony said, revealing a fake yet comforting smile on her face. She held the weapon steadily in her hooves. She wasn't afraid anymore. She took one more look at her little sister; her innocent face ruined by the fear. Apple Jack loved her sibling dearly, and would do anything to protect her. And when she said anything…

She meant _anything…_

"It will all be over very quickly." Apple Jack reassured, now raising the metal barrel of the gun.

* * *

At that very moment; three very well-known ponies were hiding in a very well-known building, Twilight Sparkles home. One was a purple unicorn holding a book open with the mysterious power known as magic. Another one was a very pink earth-pony; simply laying on the rather comfortable floor, as if nothing in the world was wrong. Her expression was blank, and her mane had dropped down to her side; unusually straight, as it had always been puffy and the third pony was light-yellow Pegasus with a large light-purple; mabye even a faint pinkish mane. Unlike her friends, she was on the second floor of the large tree house; most likely still crying under her friend's bed sheets. It had been a hard day for the three companions. Especially for the two house-guests, as they had to make a mad-dash through the sudden apocalypse just to get here. There were some things outside of their makeshift fort that would never be forgotten. Twilight had just simply cowered behind the bookshelves of her home as innocent ponies were devoured by the monsters.

The deathly silence of the library was killing Pinkie Pie. Never in her life had she ever been so quiet. It was unusual for her, for the energetic pony always had someone to talk to and something to say. Even if what she said was completely off topic of the conversation. One moment they would be discussing the effects of a badly groomed mane; next thing you knew, Pinkie randomly threw in how tasty cinnamon powder was in the small talk. These talks were normally shared with Rarity; another well-known pony. Pinkie missed her friend dearly. She missed all of her friends dearly, even the ones that accompanied her.

The Pink pony began to count the names of friends on the top of her head out of boredom. First there was Derpy, then there was Howard; Elizabeth; John; and much more to come. After five minutes of counting and naming, Pinkie had lost interest. She said to herself that she would only count the mane six; most likely one of the most important groups of ponies to her and all of Equestria. There were only two group members accompanying her at the moment; Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkles. As for the other four, they could have been eaten by whatever lay beyond Twilight's tree house for all Pinkie Pie knew. She sighed. She would do anything just to talk to the defiant Rainbow Dash. Or sit down and have an intelligent conversation with Rarity. Even Apple Jack's silent presence was preferred, even though Pinkie knew that she wasn't exactly on her _best-friend-list_. The orange pony just happened to be in their little group, as far as Pinkie knew.

Bored. Indeed bored. Pinkie simply couldn't stand it anymore. She looked over to her purple unicorn friend.

"So…" She said, breaking the extreme silence, "How was your day?"

She was talking to the purple unicorn reading the ludicrously huge stacks of books at once. Early in the day, she said she was going to find out what the cause of this strange outbreak was. But now; she was obviously too far gone in her reading, for she didn't hear her pink friend call her name. But Pinkie Pie wouldn't just be shrugged off like this. No, she was going to get something out of this bookworm.

"TWLIGHT!" Pinkie Pie shouted, making the purple unicorn jump suddenly, causing the book that was currently levitated by magic to crash to the ground. She turned around to face her pink friend, who was smiling sheepishly next to a book shelf. "Sorry." She said. The books were all strewn across the floor.

"It's fine." Twilight muttered, picking up the books. "You have to be quiet though, Pinkie. Wouldn't want those freaks outside to know we're here." Pinkie nodded.

Silence once again invaded the library. After five minutes, it was Twilight that had broken the ice.

"I think I found the meaning of everything that happening right now." She said. Despite the good news, Pinkie Pie's eyes did not light up as they usually would. Instead of energy, they were replaced by a certain feeling of un-interest.

"What'd ya find?" Pinkie asked, now sitting down on the floor again. She knew that when Twilight explained something, she explained it like she would in a fifty-paragraph essay. The pony with the black mane picked up her books once more, and broke one open, skipping to what looked like a little more than the middle of the text.

"This might not be correct," Twilight stated, "Not only was this book written a very long time ago, but it's also in the form of a fairy tale… a sick, twisted fairy tale." Pinkie nodded once more. She didn't need to say anything to cue Twilight that an explanation was required-

"So, apparently, every three-thousand decades of Equestrian time, a strange plaque walks upon our world. It's known as the Morningstar Strain. Basically, it spreads like a regular virus, infecting one pony; and that same pony infecting another pony, and so on and so forth. So-"

"But how did it spread so quickly!" Pinkie asked quickly, cutting off Twilight Sparkle's lecture. The purple pony cleared her throat-

"The way the virus spreads is through blood, saliva, and tissue." Twilight explained. Pinkie Pie still had a confused look on her face. "What that means, is if an infected person's blood gets into your mouth, wound, and so forth; you become infected. Nowhere in the book did it say anything about how long it actually takes to turn into one of these…" Twilight Sparkle paused, not knowing what to call the bloody cannibals outside their tree house,

"_Things…_" She finally said.

"I'm pretty sure they're not called things, silly." Pinkie said, her normally energetic voice was replaced by a blank emotion. Twilight frowned at this.

"Doesn't really say what they're called individually." Twilight answered, "Just says that they originate from the Morningstar Strain." Pinkie; once again nodded, now partially understanding what this all meant.

"Can you tell me how the story goes?" Pinkie asked innocently, really wanting to pass the time. Twilight cringed-

"You sure you wanna hear it?"

"I do." Pinkie said blandly, not taking no for an answer. Twilight answered her wishes-

"Well, once upon a time…" Twilight began, settling into her smooth story telling voice, "There was a pony named Laris. Laris was an unusual stallion, for he had always found a way to get into trouble, whether it was with his parents of with the authority. He was truly a twisted fellow. For his birthday, he got a pet hamster from his parents. Laris stuck his new pet in the microwave and set it on high for an hour. After that, he was exiled from Ponyville and had set on a personal quest to find a home for himself…"

Despite the story's disgusting theme, Pinkie found herself easily entranced in Twilight's voice as she told the twisted fairy tale.

"Before he knew it, he found a place hidden in the Equestrian caves that was truly more horrible than he was. It was called Demon's Passage, and it was full of nothing but; you guessed it, monsters and even real demons. Laris thought he had found a home for himself, as Demon's Passage had suited his personality perfectly; sick, twisted, and screwed up in every way ever possible.

After living with hell's inhabitants for a week, he ran away, for he finally realized that this new home was more than what he had asked for. He returned to Ponyville; begging for forgiveness and tried to convince everyone that on his journey for a home, he had completely repented on his sin. The mayor rejected Laris. This caused him so much rage; he couldn't help but go into a murderous rampage. He managed to kill about ten ponies before a brave stallion bucked him so hard in the head, his neck snapped.

They say that when the little devil was killed, all of the rage and evil that had clung to him from Demon's Passage was released into the air as a virus. After he was buried, Ponies began to drop dead and come back to life, with the appearance of a corpse and the rage of Laris. In the end, the demented pony got the last laugh as families turned on each other, and stallions ate their loved one. Yes, this was the perfect crime against the Equestrian gods indeed.

So, the Equestrian Gods had halted the virus in the next month or so, but decided to keep it in their arsenal of disasters. After seeing what a monstrosity Laris was, it was only right that they do something to keep the ponies worthy of living away from the ponies unworthy of living. And thus, it was called the Morningstar Strain, simply because Morningstar is religious term for death.

And ever since that day, the Morningstar Strain came to Equestria for a month every three-thousand years to cleanse the land of anyone unworthy of life. The end."

Twilight looked up from her book to discover that her pink friend was oddly entranced in her sick tale. It wasn't like Pinkie Pie to actually sit down and listen to a story.

"Is that it?" Pinkie Pie asked, sounding a bit disappointed that the story had ended. Twilight confirmed this and went back to reading her books. The purple pony took a glance at the now bored Pinkie Pie and asked-

"You need something to do?" Pinkie nodded her head viciously. "Go talk to Fluttershy."

Pinkie Pie bit her lip. She was unsure of this. Despite her love for her light yellow friend, she wasn't sure how to comfort such a sensitive pony at a time like this. Everything was going to hell and Pinkie was supposed to tell Fluttershy it would be alright? No, she would be lying to herself if she tried to convince Fluttershy of this. She knew she had to do something…

But did she have to do something right this instance?

She figured not and just continued to lie on the floor; thinking about other things. First there was the memory of Ms. Cake's cupcakes, then Gummy… soon the Pink pony was lost in her thoughts; with nothing but time and fear to accompany her. She wondered what the others were doing at this moment…

* * *

"Watch it!" A brown stallion shouted as he bumped into the cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane. Another pony had accompanied her, a rather beautiful white unicorn with a large curtain of purple mane.

"What a brute." Rarity simply stated, looking back at the brown stallion that pushed her friend.

"It's alright." Rainbow Dash responded, truly unaffected by the stallion's rude attitude, "Out of everything that's happening right now, manners are the last thing on anyone's mind." Rarity quietly agreed and they began to walk through the confined spaces of the Clock Tower, trying to claim a place to sit down and rest. Unfortunately, the building was full of other refugees who either claimed a spot or were looking to claim one, like Rarity and Dash.

The two ponies were in an apparent refugee camp; set up immediately when the first of the Ponyville ponies began to turn. It was guarded by a few police ponies, armed with what they said were 9mm Handguns. Seemed cool to Rainbow Dash, considering that she's seen one of the cops shoot an infected pony dead in the head once. But other than that, the miss percentage was quite high. And it seemed that it took more than a regular shot to the torso to put the monsters down.

Before arriving at the lowly clock tower, Rarity practically threatened to take Dash's life if she didn't go to the spa with her. Of course, Dash preferred to do other things than that, but it was Rarity's likability that convinced Rainbow Dash to at least try it. Before everything went bad, Dash had actually enjoyed it; although she would probably never admit it.

One of the infected ponies ran into the spa and simply mauled one of the cashier's near the door. No one dared to dart across the cannibal to the exit, for there were more of the monsters blocking the path now. Before anyone knew it, the spa had been flooded with infected ponies. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were lucky enough to have a spa room near a window. Before the infected had managed to crash through their locked door, the two hopped out the window and into a new; dangerous world. It was no safer outside than it was in the spa. It was probably even more dangerous, for the small dirt streets of Ponyville were filled with violence and terror. To their left was a helpless earth pony getting mauled by three of the monsters; her blood staining the world beneath her. Then, to their front, was a mob of hungry cannibals running surprisingly fast towards the two ponies.

Before they had been turned into a bloody mess of flesh and organs, the mob had been scattered by a couple gunshots in the air. The police ponies ushered the survivors to the Clock Tower, sending bullets towards those who pursued them.

And before the two knew it, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were taking refuge in the Clock Tower with more than twenty-something other ponies. They knew very little about the world beyond their stone walls, other than that it was still very dangerous; for gunshots had still ringed in the air frequently. It was surprising that the Clock Tower guards hadn't run out of ammo an hour ago.

"Rainbow," Rarity said, a whiny tone in her voice, "I'm ever so bored. What are we to do here with all of our spare time doing absolutely nothing?"

"I dunno." Rainbow Dash said, giving her trademark shrug, "We gotta do something though… I'm so bored."

"At least it's safe in here." Rarity said, mostly to herself rather than Rainbow Dash, "Its best to be bored and safe over scared and in danger." Dash simply nodded her head in agreement and took flight up the stairs, not waiting for Rarity to follow; even though she did. Rarity asked the cyan Pegasus what she was looking for, but Dash didn't respond. Instead, she continued to walk casually up the steps; dodging refugees until she reached a door. She opened it and stepped onto the Clock Tower platform, which was overlooking Ponyville entirely. Once Rarity caught up to Dash, a large gasp was emitted from her white muzzle.

The streets were littered with ponies from afar, just standing still; waiting. There were a few that made a run for the Tower doors; only to be shot down by it's guards. The cannibalistic ghouls standing away from the Tower didn't seem to mind the incredibly loud noise that pierced the sound barrier when a gun had been shot. It sure bothered the heck out of Rarity and Dash.

"My ears will never get use to that…" She said to no-pony in particular. Dash continued to look upon the horrific scene until she decided to just sit down and rest her hooves on her soft muzzle. Rarity sat down with her, both of the ponies were eye level. To Rarity's surprise, Rainbow Dash's face stung with tears. She was trying to hide them.

"Dear, you don't have to hold in your emotions." Rarity said gently, slowly taking Dash's hooves away from her reddened eyes. Dash said nothing. A weird type of silence had grown over the two; as if there was nothing to discuss. And it was in that weird silence where Rarity hugged her best friend. Dash didn't hug back.

"It's okay." Rarity said softly, squeezing her friend until the tears had reappeared again. Dash shook her head and pushed Rarity away.

"I'm sorry." Dash said in a whimper, "I'm… I'm not used to crying like this. It's embarrassing."

Rarity gave a half-hearted laugh, "Dash, you don't need to hide from me. I'm your best friend, and I'll take you anyway you are. Even with you crying like a little filly and such." The light insult made Dash smile, and she hugged her caring white unicorn friend. No matter would happen in the next few hours, Rainbow Dash made a promise to stay strong and true to her friends, as they had always done for her. And it was at that moment where another gunshot rang out. It was going to be a long night if this continued.

* * *

**Thats Chapter 1, for ya folks! I'll throw in some more action/drama later, but at the moment, I gotta run to the bus before I'm late to school :x Bye!**


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